20-Something Professionals Moving In With Parents

New data from the Pew Research Center shows that a record 36 percent of young adults are living with their parents. Information released by the US Census Bureau studies by the Pew Research Center shows that the Millennial Generation is largely foregoing independent housing in favour of staying at home with their families.

36 percent of young adults aged between 18 and 31 are living at home, according to the data, the highest rate in four decades. Prior to the recent economic downturn an estimated 32 percent of young adults in the same age group were living with their parents, with over 65 percent living on their own or in shared housing.

The total number of American Millennial living at home reached 21.6 million in the last year. The young adults living at home are largely college students – a group that the Pew Research Center believes makes up between a third and half of all people in the survey.

Young adults aged 18 to 24 are the most likely to live with their parents, with a total of 56 percent choosing to reside in their family’s home. But older Millennials – those aged 25 to 31 – are increasingly making the same choice. A total of 16 percent of all Americans aged between 25 and 31 live at home, according to the study.

Factors affecting the increase in live-at-home young professionals include an ailing job market in which over 35 percent of Millennials are unemployed, and the costly higher education ‘bubble’ that’s affecting many students’ financial health. Men are more likely to live at home than women, with 40 percent and 32 percent living at home, respectively.

The Pew Social Trends report also indicated that declining rates of marriage are also having an effect on the number of young adults living with their parents. 25 percent of Millennials are married, while 30 percent of Millennial adults were married prior to the economic crisis in 2007.